Shelf Life

Recent publications

Write for Your Lives: Inspire Your Creative Writing with Buddhist Wisdom by Joseph Sestito (SAS ’92). (Watkins Publishing, paperback, $19.95) Writer’s block can turn a blank page into a hulking obstacle. Sestito’s practical book is meant to help writers express themselves when they don’t know how to start by applying scientific knowledge and the Dharma principles of Tibetan Buddhism.

The Adirondack Reader by Neal Burdick (GRS ’81) and Paul Jamieson. (Adirondack Mountain Club, paperback, $39.95) The third edition of this collection of writings spans more than 400 years of the region’s history and literature and reflects our nation’s changing attitudes toward wilderness. It includes the work of some 30 new writers, as well as classic authors, such as Joyce Carol Oates, Henry David Thoreau and James Fenimore Cooper.

A Very Rich Man by Dixon Long, emeritus professor of political science, dean emeritus of Western Reserve College. (BookSurge Publishing, paperback, $15.99) This family drama explores the private lives of a wealthy and prominent family living near Cleveland. Danny and Amy Wainwright, brother and sister, have escaped a dysfunctional upbringing and made new lives and careers in San Francisco. When they are compelled to return, a trail of secrets threatens to shatter the peace Danny and Amy have found in their new lives.

Heart Murmurs—Poems by John A. Vanek, MD (ADL ’70). (Bird Dog Publishing, paperback, $15) In this full-length poetry collection, Vanek’s recollections of friends, patients and family evolve into an examination of life’s larger issues: longing, lament, love and a glimpse at what makes us most human.

Portage by Lawren Farber (ADL ’69). (Xlibris Corporation, paperback, $19.99) Farber’s first novel presents violent confrontations along Portage Path in Akron, Ohio, the author’s hometown. American Indians and settlers of the Connecticut Western Reserve, citizens and other factions clash in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. Why such a concentration of violence along these 8 miles of path? Whatever the reason, these simple “accidents” of time and season hold consequences of monumental proportions.